Everything in this article is exciting, not only because of its potential benefits but because it is actually within reach in my lifetime. The scary thing with all of this is how hackable everything continues to be. If everything has an IP address, it is all reachable by those who should and should not access them. That would scare me if a group decided to turn all of our automated cars into bumper cars, in particular.

Up until recently, much of technology-driven innovation was generated from the convergence of at least somewhat related technologies or applications: for example, silcon-based wireless electronics and processors, robotics and lasers for high-tech manufacturing, surgical robots, PET scanners, miniaturization of optical sensors and avionic control systems enabling increasing use of aerial drones.

Today we are seeing convergence occurring across widely disparate technologies: molecular biologics, genomics, implants, nanotech, advanced electronics, optics, new polymers and other exotic materials, even the early stages of quantum computing.

We are alresady seeing the initial glimmerings of artificial "consciousness" -- at least in the form of autonomic situational awareness. We are on the verge of being able to "print" replacement tissues and organs, cure previously untreatable diseases with radical new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. And many scientists believe that we are on the brink of taking control over the evolution of our own species.

Thanks for giving us some interesting things to consider, Chuck. Back when books like Future Shock and MegaTrends were big, imagining the future seemed so much more linear in nature. Today, change happens so dynamically, and so quickly, it's hard to fathom how different things will be in just 10 or 20 years. Just consider our lives before mobile phones at the turn of the century, and how different they are now, after the iPhone hit the world just a few years later. One things for sure, we can't stop the changes.

Like Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility." There is a lot of potential power in the Internet of Things. We will see marvelous new things, things we can barely imagine right now. It won't be a perfect. We will have issues and some will be doozies. We'll work through the issues, but I think it will be a very bumpy ride.

A thought-provoking summary here of future tech. Certainly there's the potential to save and extend lives and improve manufacturing and the retail experience. That's the exciting part to read about. But I'm glad the writer touched on the potential for misuse, which is always lurking in the shadows.

"As always, human health and welfare will need to be overriding priorities."

Amen to that. But I hope that sentiment doesn't get lost in the rush to build more driverless cars and bionic men.

Medical technology has the most potential to drive further change. We've already made global point-to-point communication possible in large potions of the world. For our next act, maybe we can make lives better.

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.